Secrets Past
by killnarakusetmefree
Summary: Kagome and Inuyasha grew up together on the streets. Now They have to stay at his aunt's house, and some of the people moving in aren't necessarily sane. Then there's the part about the creepy things about the house.
1. Chapter 1

XII

_Okay people, I know it's been a long time since I last updated, I'm sorry, and I really wish I didn't have so much freaking school work… Even if you've already read chapter eight re-read it, I've changed some stuff, and added a bit._

Miroku led her to the maze, but his help other than that was pointless. Kimi walked out of it and gave them a simple greeting.

"Thanks for the help Miroku." Kagome smiled at him.

"No problem. Come find us when you're done. Uh, with whatever you need her for." Miroku hoped the last pat of the sentence would make a good enough cover up for his major slip-up.

After she made sure he had left Kagome turned to Kimi. "I want to know more about the curse, precisely how the ritual or whatever it is that seals Naraku how it's carried out, anything that might help."

"Help with what?" Kimi began to stroll towards the house.

"Well, I want to find another way. I know you're probably going to say 'don't try, it's impossible.' Well, you don't have to; there's a reason we have free will, if we had a single trail without any forks in the road, we would be going along with what other people want from us. I refuse to be controlled. So if you don't help me I can go to Inuyasha, if I explain to him everything he will tell me all he knows. So you have the choice of helping me without Inuyasha finding out, or he could find out everything and I still learn what I need." Kimi was impressed with the girl's bargaining skills.

"You didn't have to go and say all that; I was hoping you would decide this." Kagome stared at her confused. "And I am impressed with that little speech. By the way, you can't fool me; I can tell that you have told all three of them."

"Heh-heh, you're not mad are you?"

"You're still here aren't you? Besides, I wanted you to tell them. I wanted them to understand what was going on and would happen. I knew if I had you all know, one of you would think to try something else, and with all of you helping we would most likely come up with an easier way."

"Kimi, why didn't you just flat out tell us?"

"Well, if I had told you, even with the part about you and Inuyasha, you would think you were but you wouldn't have your whole heart in it. Though, if you came up with the idea on your own and had others supporting you then you would have more determination and so on."

"You really like playing mind games don't you."

"No, Psychology was my major in college. So I know all about it, therefore mind games are boring to me. Well, unless they're on Sesshomaru and he actually falls for it; he is the only person who can withstand most of my tests." She grinned at Kagome, who just stared at her.

"_And I thought Inuyasha had been over-dramatic about her being crazy!" _ "So, I take it now that the 'secret' is out, you want to talk with them as well?"

"Yes. I will be in the Library."

Kagome headed back to the Music room to find the others gone. Next stop, Sango and Miroku's room, nobody. On to Inuyasha's. Bingo, they were in there.

"It would have been nice if you guys had told me you were heading to another room!" she shouted as she walked in.

"You don't have to scream!" Inuyasha threw his hands over his ears.

"Sorry." She shrugged, not really caring.

"You weren't with her very long, what did you find out?"

"That we were busted from the start, and that your aunt plays mind games."

"Huh?" all three answered at the same time.

"Long story short, she knew I would tell you guys everything and wanted you to know about it, therefore she told and waited for one of us to come up with the idea to rebel. Easy enough to understand, right? Kay, let's go, she's waiting for all of us in the library." Kagome said the entire thing in a single breath and gasped for air.

"Uh, sure, whatever." Sango said as they headed to the library.

Sesshomaru was in one of the corners with a book, and Kimi was attempting to get him to put it away.

"As I told you before, there is no point in searching for another way, so I will not participate and end up wasting my time." He glanced up at the four trespassers then back to the book.

"Sesshomaru, if we even learn a little then it is not pointless, others will follow if we fail, and they will learn more as well, it will not waste your time. Plus, you have the rest of your pointless life for stuff worth your time, now help your brother!" She glared at him, still oblivious to the four who had just walked in. "Your father would have wanted you to help him."

"Dammit, don't bring my father into this like you know him." Sesshomaru growled.

"Well, I know him a hell of a lot better than you. You were still a shrimp when he died, so shut up and help us." She growled just as menacingly.

He sat there staring at her a few minutes then put the book down, and shoved past her. He walked over to a book shelf and removed one of the edges.

"This is where anything would be that could help."

On the corner was a black pad that lit up to a neon blue when he pushed a button on one side. He pressed his finger against it; the wall next to the bookcase slowly folded itself down, like a divider wall only vertical. Behind it was a chain curtain that was drawn to the side and was attached at the top and bottom.

"What is that room?" Kimi walked over to the door and walked in through a silk curtain. "Why the hell didn't I know about this room?" she shouted a minute later, somewhere far away from the doorway.

"Father had it added to the blueprints at last minute. Guess you didn't know as much about him as you thought you did." Sesshomaru remarked smartly.

She popped her head through the curtain. "Shut up. Now, tell me, what is this room?"

"When the house was first made it served not only as a house, but as a museum too. There were certain things he didn't want shown off, either because of the value of it, or something the world shouldn't see." Sesshomaru said and walked over to his book, picked it up and headed to the door. "Spend as much time in there as you want. I don't care." The library door closed with a loud thud behind him.

"That was, um, interesting," Kagome stuttered. "So, you said you would tell us more?" they walked over to the newly found room and walked in after Kimi.

"Oh, yes, I almost forgot about that." She ran a hand through her two inch long brown and graying hair. "Well, the two are alone in a room, with a circle drawn of ground spices, sugar water, salt water, and vinegar. Two pentagrams are drawn of the same, facing opposite directions, so as to look like a ten pointed star. They sit in the middle, back to back." She paused to take a break, and to try to remember the rest.

"Then they chant something, and when Naraku shows up one leaves the circle and it's over." Inuyasha finished. All but Kimi looked at him quizzically.

"How did you know that?" Kagome asked.

"I'd rather not talk about it."

"So, now that you know how it's done, what other questions do you have?"

Kagome finally asked what was obviously on everybody else's mind, "How long do we have?"

"It's whenever is best. In this case we need to wait as long as possible so we can find out as much as possible. But he will show himself sooner or later. That could take days, weeks, maybe even months."

"Okay, so we should get to work as soon as possible!" Sango said as if it were a simple task and walked past Kimi into the room.

Inuyasha shook his head and followed her, allowing a small chuckle to exit his mouth. Kagome also; her head slightly dropping forward.

"Aunt Kimi, is there any real chance that we might be able to find a way?" Miroku asked softly.

"Who knows? We might, and we might be too late. The only thing that is sure is that we can try. Try what you can, even when you fail, keep trying. Live by that; so many things could happen." She walked into the room followed by Miroku.

The room was huge, it had a low ceiling, but it stretched back a few yards, then the sagging, tunnel passageway seemed out of place among the assorted things in the room. Sheathed swords hung on the walls, some on stands; the swords that didn't have sheathes sat on tables on dusty cushions and perches. Each of the sheaths or handles equipped with a jewel or two that twinkled despite the dust that had gathered on it. Kimonos and other things, which had obviously been woven of something not known to man, were either draped as a wall hanging or hung on a wooden rack. Other assorted weapons, that seemed to be out of the craziest and unbelievable fairytales, each had a stand of its own, some even accompanied by a sketch of the original wielder. The room, which was probably big enough to house a ballroom party, was almost as stuffed as a small car on moving day.

"Whoa." Miroku mouthed as a small gasp echoed in everyone's throats.

"So," Kagome said after a long pause. "Where should we start?" she gave a hopeless chuckle that morphed into a groan. _"This is going to be impossible."_

They began their search for anything helpful. As Sango, Miroku, Kimi, and Inuyasha started to clean off a few of the name plaques Kagome ventured down through the tunnel. The floor was made of large, pathetically placed stones, making it uneven and unstable. The walls had Bamboo stalks holding them up and the ceiling was a single large stone. Even someone who wasn't Closter phobic would feel the walls closing in while walking with their head bent so as to not whack it on the occasional jut of rock above them. Near the center a swinging door gave way to a small room packed with books of all sizes. A hanging on the wall behind the door caught her attention. _Even the weakest can win, and the smartest be outsmarted. Life gives a test of faith; don't be the one to fail. _Even if it was a little cheesy, it still caught Kagome off guard. She couldn't help but feel that it was cheering them on… Talk about cheesy.

At the end of the tunnel a bolted door stood. It was made of bamboo just like the walls, but had been painted a blood red color. She jiggled it and knew Inuyasha could open it. She turned around to head back.

And ran into a wall.

Or rather, a door; the same one she had just found, but it was reversed. Now, the handle which had been on the right, was now on the left.

"_Aw crap, where am I?"_ she turned around and saw a wall and a path that lead to the right. She realized that the door normally would have opened to a hallway that leads to another room. How many could have been hidden on the third floor, along with all the long hallways with the 'natural' stone ceilings?

The third and final room only had seven things in it. A red males kimono shirt, a bow and quiver full of arrows with black feathers, and two swords. One seemed in fairly good condition, the other almost in tatters. Not seeing anything interesting anywhere else in the room she headed back to the door. The door swung open as if the locks she had seen before on the other side hadn't existed.

And she walked into the library, from the main door. Not into the tunnel.

"Okay. That was weird." She scowled in confusion and was shook out of it when she heard Inuyasha's voice.

"Hey Kagome, how'd you get out there?" he was standing with the curtain half parted and his head tilted to the side.

"Uh, I'm not entirely sure." She said still confused and walked over to him.

"Your scent vanished a few minutes ago and then just popped up in there." He let the curtain drop after her.

"Something's messed up with the door at the end of the tunnel." She walked back to the opening leading into the tunnel.

"What do you mean?"

"I jiggled it because it was locked, trying to see if it was weak enough for you to break, and then when I turned around I ran into it, only on the opposite side. It was like I had somehow been transported to the other side. After exploring the room at the end of the hall I went back to the door and opened it easily and walked out, into the library." She walked back down the hall to the door again, Inuyasha behind her, but didn't touch it. "And you said something about my scent vanishing. Something is seriously strange with this door."

"Yeah." He turned around and cupped his hands to his mouth. "Hey Miroku! Come here!" a clattering noise was heard above and a fine stream of curses coming from Miroku.

"Geez, you made me tip over a stand of metal staves! Which made Sango knock over a table!" he muttered as he found them.

"I didn't make you do jack squat."

"Anyways, so what did you need me for?"

"What do you make of this door?" Kagome asked and pointed to it with her thumb.

"Well, it's a red bamboo door. With locks." He shrugged. "Nothing special."

"Yeah, I would agree. If I hadn't been somehow transported to the other side then walked into the library instead of this tunnel when I walked through it." Kagome gave him a look that said 'try again'.

"Uh." He gave a nervous chuckle. "Okay. That's not what a normal door is supposed to do."

"Ya think?"

Miroku went to touch it but Kagome grabbed his arm.

"I was taken to the other side when I touched it."

"And your point is? You're still alive so what's wrong if I cross?"

She looked at him a few seconds the let go of his arm with a shrug. He put his hand on it, nothing happened.

"Uh. I jiggled the handle, maybe that's what activates it."

He tried that; still nothing.

Inuyasha pushed past the two, "Let me try." He lifted his leg to kick it down. When his foot made contact with the wood it seemed to be sucked in between the stalks. In a few seconds he was completely sucked through.

"No use- Oof." A light thudding noise came from the door, and Inuyasha's curses were muffled.

"Inuyasha?" Kagome touched the door, unlike the last time she felt a slight tug. Then she looked to her left and saw Inuyasha getting up from the ground. "Oops. I didn't mean to knock you over."

"You didn't, I hit the wall when I saw you coming through and then fell over."

"Oh. I take that back then."

He headed to the last room and looked around. Then went to pick up some of the things.

"Inuyasha, what are you doing?"

"Well, it's obvious that the others can't come in here, so I'm going to take them out there." He had both of the swords in his hands when he reached for the bow. A pink light surrounded it and forced his hand away with a small jolt of electricity. "Heh, a spiritual barrier. Fun, fun. You might be able to pick it up."

Kagome reached for it and again the light shot out, but this time when her hand reached the edge it simmered out, like water on a hot pan.

"Well that was interesting." She grabbed the red robe from the stand

They headed back to the door and walked out, and into the library just as before.

"So, nothing else? No special gut wrenching pain or anything?"

"Would you have preferred there to be?"

"No! It's just; you would think that there would be something like that."

"Come on," Kagome sighed and walked back into the hidden room. "Hey, we found this in a hidden room."

"Wait, how did you get out there? You never even walked by." Sango glared at them confused.

"Some weird enchanted door thingy that wouldn't let Miroku enter but let me and Inuyasha." Kagome said and sat the stuff down. "And now I'm going to see if there were any books on any of this stuff."

Right as Kagome walked into the tunnel she ran into Miroku.

"The door opened but nobody was on the other side. Then I heard you guys up here. It was like it's a portal or something." he said and helped Kagome up.

"Really? I would never have thought!" Kagome said sarcastically and walked past him.

After choosing two books she walked back out into the first room, dropped them into Inuyasha arms and walked out into the actual library. The others followed. She began going down the lines of books.

"You know, we have a computer system with them all listed. You just enter the keywords or subject and it comes up with a list. It would be much faster." Kimi said and guided her over to a computer in the corner.

"Oh."

Kagome typed in keywords of the four things that had been brought from the secret room. Then looked at the tiny list and found each one listed.

"So let's get started." Inuyasha said and looked over to Kagome.

She already had one of the books open and was skimming the lines. "Yeah, sure, let's get to work." She said in a distant voice, not even registering what she was saying. The rest soon settled in with a book and began reading.

_Okay, so as you can tell ive revised this one a bit, taken out the other two things that were originally in the secret room. _


	2. Chapter 2

Okay, so i didnt get my three reviews, oh well. Here is more.

"Well I'm going to take a nap wake me up when it's time." She walked over to him and he wrapped his arm around her shoulders. _"Is it coincidence or would we have ended up acting like siblings whether we were there anyways?"_ He swatted a mosquito away from his face and leaned his head back against the air conditioner. He closed his eyes and thought back on all the years they had been together. "Why does this one feel different?" he muttered. _"Something just doesn't feel right about all this." _ He looked down at Kagome. Something was struggling to get to the front of his mind. _"Oh ya, I forgot today was her seventeenth birthday! We've been robbing people for what, twelve years now, and not once have we been caught. If that's not a sign from the heavens that the police need to upgrade then what is?"_ he chuckled and adjusted his legs so that she didn't cut off the circulation.

The next two hours were spent running through the plan, and looking back on some of their previous thieving missions, something he always did.

A noise alerted him; forgetting that Kagome's head was on his lap he jumped up and ran to the edge of the roof.

"Ow! Hey what happened? Why are you over there?" Kagome rubbed her eyes and walked to the edge and looked at the house.

A man was getting out of a fancy car with a lady; they didn't look more than twenty. The man had black hair pulled back into a short ponytail. The woman had her light brown hair pulled into a bun.

"Well waddya know, they finally got together!" Inuyasha chuckled. Then he stopped abruptly as he realized something. "Oh crap, they're going to be there tonight! Of all the bad timings Miroku, you had to show up now!"

"Who are they?"

"That's Miroku and the girl he used to have a crush on, Sango. By the looks of it he finally did something about their relationship. And judging by how she just slapped him for looking at the maid I'd say that at most he's proposed but they haven't had the ceremony."

"You can tell how their relationship is going just by the way she slaps him?"

"You don't know Sango the way I do."

"Uh-huh, so that's two more people we need to worry about."

"You're not concerned?"

"Of course it bothers me, but c'mon Inuyasha, it's us, we're probably the best thieves in the world! Two more people in a house that big shouldn't concern us that much. So when do we start?"

They saw a moving truck pull up. "Oh yippee they're moving in with her; well at least it gives us a good opportunity. We pretend to be one of the movers that's how we get inside then we go about it as we had originally planned."

"Works for me."

When they reached the truck one of the movers asked what they were doing.

"We're servants from the house; they sent us to help you move all of the furniture." Inuyasha answered before Kagome could say anything. She didn't know much about the house; never know what she might say because of her creative mind. The mover grunted and handed them a sofa.

"Hey!"

"What? I had to make it sound reasonable. You probably would have said that leprechauns sent you from outer space to steal furniture for testing on the superior race on earth."

"Hey that was a good story! And it worked! So don't criticize it!"

"Yeah, they let us go after I explained stuff!"

"Well excuse me for trying to be helpful!"

"Let's just get this over with I hate this house."

After dropping off the sofa they headed off to the library where the item was kept. They got as far as the dining room before someone called out Inuyasha's name.

"Damn he saw me, keep walking, and just ignore him." Inuyasha muttered.

The person started to run towards them; he ran past and blocked their path.

"I new it! It is you Inuyasha!" It was Miroku.

"Yeah, yeah, nice to see you too now get out of my way."

"Wait, you just show up after twelve years and expect me not to want to talk with my cousin?"

"Cousin? You never said he was related to you!" Kagome turned on Inuyasha.

"Eh, you never asked. Come on."

"Oh, I didn't see you there! Hello, my name is Miroku! You're a very attractive young la-" he was cut short by Inuyasha picking up a vase and whacking Miroku with it.

"Miroku! Aren't you getting married to Sango or something?"

"How did you know?"

"We saw you when you were getting out of the car idiot. Sango was way too over protective of you to not be in a relationship with you."

Kagome grabbed Miroku's ponytail and the back of Inuyasha's shirt. "Look you guys can get all caught up and stuff later but right now Inuyasha and I have to leave, so get lost!"

"She's got spunk. She reminds me of you Inuyasha."

Kagome gave him a death glare.

"Or not. I'll be leaving right about, now!" Miroku turned and walked away without another word.

"Why didn't you do that in the first place?"

"He seemed nice at first."

Inuyasha scoffed and started walking again.

When they walked into the library they found the box they were looking for.

"This is it? What's so special about the box?"

"It's not the box they were wanting, it's what's inside. I remember sneaking this to various places in the house and watching as my aunt freaked out. It was always so funny."

"You torturing your aunt, that's not so hard to picture."

"Was that supposed to be funny?" Inuyasha picked up the box and turned towards the door. He didn't make another move.

"Inuyasha?" Kagome said; she heard someone say it at the same time as her.

She turned towards the door and saw his aunt.

"Oh crap." She muttered under her breath.

"Inuyasha!" Inuyasha's aunt looked and sounded furious.

She walked up to him until their noses were almost touching; she was about six inches shorter than him. Kagome saw Miroku show up at the door, Sango stood behind him. They both looked on the verge of tears from their bottled up laughter. Kagome had to admit, Inuyasha being rendered speechless by a woman who he could have easily bested was sort of amusing.

"Inuyasha, Inuyasha," her voice was softer and she was shaking her head. But it was only the calm before the storm. "You stupid, stupid boy!" She shouted at him. She started ranting, asking him questions about why he ran away and where he had been since he left. Though she didn't even give him time to answer. This went on for about three minutes.

"Shut up! Geez! You're worse than Miroku!" Inuyasha yelled.

She gasped, and took a step back. Inuyasha slammed the box on the table and held his hands behind him.

"Kagome get on!"

"No! You are not leaving again! Miroku!"

Miroku ran at Inuyasha as if he had been waiting for this his entire life. He grabbed Inuyasha's hair and held it in a position Kagome couldn't get at it and to where if Inuyasha moved he would be bald for the rest of his life.

"Sango!" Miroku called out.

"Right!"

She ran up and kicked Inuyasha's legs out from under him. He fell on his stomach, Kagome was still on his back, and Miroku still had a grip of his hair, Sango had a hold of his ankles. Kagome rolled off of him and was grabbed by Inuyasha's aunt. With his arms now free Inuyasha grabbed Miroku's ankles and flipped him over. He yanked his feet out from under Sango and stood up.

"Kag- Why do you always do stupid stuff like this?"

"Me? You're the one with the screwed up family who would readily attack you!"

"Actually we attacked him for revenge." Miroku commented.

"You stay out of this!" Kagome and Inuyasha shouted at the same time.

"Hey lady guess what, I'm tired of being in this stupid house. So let go!" Kagome slammed her foot down on her foot and she let go.

"Time to go," Kagome nodded in agreement.

Inuyasha picked up a pointed object and threw it at the window. The grabbed each other's hands and jumped out at the same time. He put her on his back right before he landed. Though it wasn't a very good landing. He touched ground in a large mud puddle and fell over.

"Inuyasha!" Kagome shouted, he was on top of her and wasn't getting up. She flipped him over and got out from under him, his eyes were closed and he didn't react to her slapping him.

"You are going to get us out of here! So wake up!" Kagome shook him. No reply. "Inuyasha?" she lowered her voice. "Don't tell me you're gone! You've made jumps like that before and came out perfectly fine!" she leaned her head on his chest. "And you promised me that you weren't going to leave me, remember? When you found me, you promised."

"Don't worry about him; he's just out cold for the moment." Sango said. She, Miroku, and Inuyasha's aunt had rushed downstairs after he had jumped out of the window.

Kagome looked up at them, "Leave us alone don't you understand that he hates you?"

"I know, but frankly, I don't care. You two take him upstairs." The lady walked off without another word.

"Come on, this place isn't nearly as bad as he's made it out to be, I'm sure." Sango pulled Kagome off Inuyasha. "Besides, he's going to have a pretty bad headache when he wakes up so he needs to stay here, and if you don't want to be thrown out I suggest you come with us."

Kagome trudged slowly behind. They took him into a room and laid him on the bed. Kagome walked into the room and stood by the door waiting for them to leave.

Sango handed Kagome a small bottle of liquid, "Have him drink this for his headache when he wakes up."

"Couldn't you have just given this to me in the first place and let us go."

"Kagome, Aunt Kimi isn't the only one that wants Inuyasha here, we've missed him too." He took on a more cheerful tone, "Besides, he deserves to tell us where he's been all these years and how he found you!"

They walked out of the room and closed the door.

"_Finally, I thought they were never going to leave!" _Kagome ran over to Inuyasha and sat beside him. She stuffed the bottle in her pocket and rearranged him that his head was on her lap.

"There you go, now you have a pillow!" she subconsciously started rubbing his ears. _"It's my turn to watch over you now; you have protected me like a brother, now I get to return the favor."_ "We failed, we didn't get it. I guess we were too cocky. We've got to remember to expect bad to happen when we go to a job next time."


	3. Chapter 3

Sango and Miroku were standing outside the door.

"So her name is Kagome?" Sango asked; Miroku nodded.

"Doesn't it sound familiar?"

"Yeah, like almost as if it were someone special, or was going to be special." Sango said thoughtfully.

"Wait, it couldn't be her, could it? The Kagome that ran away right before Aunt Kimi adopted her."

"It does make sense, those scars look old and the ones on her arms look as if they were made by pavement. Pavement from a car accident, that one of her parents died in, I remember Kimi telling us about her."

"Yeah, those two must have found each other on the streets and grew up together."

Kagome had heard the entire conversation, and was shocked.

"_What? That lady was the old woman that going to adopt me?"_ Kagome leaned against the headboard. _"Did Inuyasha know? If he did I'm going to kill him!"_ she looked down at him and frowned.

She moved his head aside and ran to the door. She figured it would be locked but tried it anyway. It opened easily. She looked down the hallway; one direction was a dead-end so she headed to the left. She took off running and saw Miroku and Sango a few seconds later. She tried to call out their names but nothing would come out, so she continued running until she could get their attention.

"Hello, we figured you would stay in there with Inuyasha!" Miroku said cheerfully; that was getting on Kagome's nerves.

She was hunched over panting. She held up a hand to motion for them to wait.

"What, what did you mean when you said that Inuyasha's aunt was going to adopt me?" she managed through gasps.

"Oh, you heard us. Well we meant just what we said." Sango sounded a bit surprised.

"Inuyasha was going to be the only child in this house so Aunt Kimi was going to adopt another child to grow up with him, and I guess it turned out to be you!" Miroku explained. "Though it is quite ironic that you two found each other."

"Now I'm gonna kill him whether or not he knew." She mumbled before turning around and walking back to the room.

Miroku and Sango glanced at each other, "Um, shouldn't we be going to save him?" they looked to see Kagome entering the room. "Nah."

"I almost feel sorry for him," Sango crossed her arms and stood there watching the door half expecting to hear noise of a fight in there, but there wasn't any sound.

"Don't you think we should do something? I mean, she is pretty tough. She's almost as bad as Inuyasha."

"Let's go!" Sango stated and took off towards the room.

They barged into the room and saw Kagome sitting with Inuyasha's head on her lap again. She stopped rubbing his ears and looked up at them.

"Eh, but you said you were going to kill him!" Miroku stuttered.

"I meant I was going to chew him out when he woke up, geez I wouldn't kill him, hes like my brother!"

"Inuyasha and brother in the same sentence, meaning positive relationship. That will never happen." Sango almost started cracking up.

"Why couldn't he act like an older brother?" Kagome pouted.

"Because he has an older brother and let's just say their sibling rivalry was always really harsh." Miroku commented.

"He has a brother? Oh, maybe this wasn't such a bad thing, I'm finding out many things that I will get to torment him for."

Miroku sat in a chair and Sango sat at the foot of the bed.

"So how did you two find each other?" Sango asked.

"Um, well I don't remember much, a promise he made, him carrying me to go find something to clean out my injuries from the accident, and then waking up in the morning and seeing him in his hanyou state. He found me on the night of the new moon." She stared messing with his ears again. "Ever since then we've taken care of each other."

"Why did you show up today?" Miroku propped his head up with his hands.

Kagome chuckled before she answered. "We've survived by stealing. Today we were supposed to steal that box. We had been looking forward to this one for a while now; Inuyasha because of revenge for some clowns his aunt, I guess she's your aunt too, she had stuck some clowns in his closet and he still wants to get her back for that." Sango and Miroku almost died of laughter.

"That's just like him!" Miroku managed.

"So what about you? Why were you looking forward to this place?" Sang regained her composure.

"I don't know, I guess I thought it would be a fun challenge, I mean, this is the biggest house for miles and has so many people in it." Kagome turned to Miroku, "And if it weren't you we would have had it easy!

"See what I mean, Sango, she's almost as threatening as Inuyasha!" Miroku pointed at Kagome.

"Why do you keep comparing-" Kagome looked down at Inuyasha. He had moved; he turned over and started to roll off the side of the bed. Kagome grabbed him and held him in the spot. "You're not going anywhere mister!" but gravity wasn't on her side, soon they both fell to the ground, Kagome landed on top of Inuyasha, her head was on his chest.

"Why do we have so much bad luck today?" she sighed.

"Hey, get off!" she heard Inuyasha mumble, "You're crushing me!"

"Finally!" Kagome rolled off him and pulled him up. "You have some explaining to do!"

"Geez keep it down will ya?" he looked around the room and saw the other two. He plopped down on the bed. "Great, we're still here aren't we? What did you use this time Sango? Powder, gas, pill, or liquid?"

"Oh no, you're not the one asking questions here!"

"Someone give me that drink so I can figure out why she's screaming at me."

"Oops, sorry, here your go." Kagome pulled it out of her pocket and handed it to him.

"Thank you, geez. Now what's wrong?"

"You knew didn't you? You knew that your aunt was the one who was going to adopt me didn't you?"

Inuyasha stared at her for a few seconds then finally decided to answer, "Yeah I knew, but what does it matter?

"We'll be going now." Miroku motioned for Sango and they left the room.

Kagome was still glaring at Inuyasha. After the door closed she continued. "Inuyasha I asked you many times if you knew who the person could have been and you always told me you didn't know! You were lying to me!" She stood in front of him with her hands on her hips. "You were lying to me about something as simple as that! It makes me wonder what else you haven't told me."

Inuyasha stood up. "I didn't know how you would feel, and I didn't want the one person who I had actually come to trust to distance them self from me."

"I would have accepted it and moved on, you should know that; just like when I found out you were half demon, I would have found the good in it and moved on. I would have accepted it." He wrapped his arms around her and she sagged against him. She kept muttering stuff as Inuyasha sat back down on the bed with her still in his arms. She was soon asleep. After laying her down, he walked out of the room; Sango and Miroku were standing there waiting for him.

"She okay?" Sango asked as they set off down the hallway.

"Yeah, I guess she didn't take it as well as she thought she could, or maybe it's because I've been lying to her, who knows. She's asleep, she was tired from the beginning, and I guess that just got her worn out."

He stuck his hands in his pockets

"So, how long do you think we'll be able to keep you here?" Miroku glanced at Inuyasha.

"I don't know, not long. Couple of weeks at most. Neither of us has slept in real beds in years." The others shrugged. "I take it you got her to tell you how we found each other and what we've been doing all these years."

"Yep, thieves huh. Sounds fun." Miroku grinned.

"You have no idea." Inuyasha shoved Miroku into the wall.

"Hey!" Miroku attempted to push Inuyasha but he jumped backwards and Miroku ended up pushing Sango instead.

"Miroku! Oh you're going to get it now!" Sango glared at him. She started for him but at the last second switched and smacked Inuyasha in the stomach.

"Hey! I'm not the one that pushed you!" Inuyasha growled.

"I know; that was payback for earlier." Sango innocently grinned at him.

"What did I do to you?" Inuyasha yelled.

"You smashed my finger between your big feet!" Sango held up her left hand, the ring finger was swollen a little bit and the nail was almost split in two.

"That's you fault for helping!"

"Hey Inuyasha, she said you treated her like you were an older brother, she isn't younger than you is she?" Miroku tried to stop the soon to be all out fight.

"Uh yeah, by two years, today is her seventeenth birthday. Why do you ask?"

"She just doesn't look seventeen; she looks older."

"Well don't get any ideas, you're already engaged."

"Don't worry; my dear Sango here is the only one for me."

"Call me dear Sango one more time and see what happens." Sango threatened.

"You should get the rings now; you already act as if you're married."

"Oh ya Sango, I won." Miroku held his hand out towards her.

"That's right; I forgot we had made the bet."

"Bet?"

"Yeah, after we started going out we made a bet on you. If you came back before we were married I win, but if you showed up after then Sango wins. And since we aren't married yet I won!"

"You guys are almost as nuts as her!" Inuyasha scoffed and shook his head in pity.

"Almost as nuts as who? Kimi or Kagome?"

"Both now that I think about it, but I was referring to Kagome the first time. Where are we going anyways?"

"To an old room that hasn't been used since you left." Miroku and Sango grabbed Inuyasha's arms so he couldn't run away.

"Kagome says you're still upset about the clowns in your closet."

"Oh come on you've got to be kidding me! No, let go of me! Come on guys don't make me go in there!"

"Too bad, you're going to conquer your fears whether you like it or not!" Sango said as she pulled the door open and shoved Inuyasha Inside. She and Miroku followed closely so he couldn't get out.

"Now, now Inuyasha, calm down! The sooner you accept them as friends the sooner you leave the room."

"Miroku you're a psychotic moron!" Inuyasha ran towards the window and attempted to break it, but it didn't work. He was stuck in the room. He looked for somewhere to hide, but everywhere he went a clown was right in front of his face. He decided to give Miroku a piece of his own medicine. Thus the clown war was started.

When Kagome woke no one was in the room, so she walked into the hallway, again no one was there. She faintly heard yelling in the distance. She walked for a few minutes and came to a light blue door that was closed.

"Miroku! Stop! Get that thing out of my face!" Kagome heard Inuyasha scream.

"It's for your own good!"

"I said get that out of my face!"

"_What the heck is going on in there?"_ Kagome opened the door and saw Inuyasha lying on his back flailing his arms. Sango was holding down his legs again, and Miroku was sitting on his stomach holding a clown doll right up in Inuyasha's face. "What the heck is going on in here?" She saw the clowns that were randomly strewn across the floor; some had a limb or their head torn off.

"Ah, hello Kagome!" Miroku was thrown off Inuyasha as he bolted up and ran behind Kagome.

"Keep those psychotic creatures away from me!"

"What the clowns?" Kagome picked one up and threw it at Miroku; it hit him square in the nose.

"No those two." Inuyasha pointed at Sango and Miroku.

"What were you guys doing? What is this room and why are there clowns everywhere?" Kagome Interrogated.

"We were helping Inuyasha overcome his fear!" Sango said as she helped Miroku up. "And this," Sango held her arms out and spun around, "is Inuyasha's old bedroom."

Kagome looked at the room again. "I fully understand why you ran away; half the stuff in here is pink!"

"Yeah and the funny thing is, Inuyasha picked it all out." Sango smirked.

"No I didn't!" Inuyasha barked.

"It's okay Inuyasha you don't have to be ashamed that it's you favorite color, I mean mine's purple!" they stared at Miroku with wide unblinking eyes. "Geez, can't you take a joke?"

"Um, ok. We'll be going now." Inuyasha grabbed Kagome's wrist and walked her outside the room.

"Are we leaving?" Kagome asked.

"No, Miroku and Sango would be on us in minutes, we're going to stay here for a while, that is as long as my aunt makes us stay. If she doesn't we're leaving as soon as possible."

"So where are we going then?" Kagome asked as she followed him through the winding hallways.

"Somewhere those two can't find us." Inuyasha stated. He walked into a room and went strait out onto the balcony. "Here, get on my back." He jumped up onto a ledge and then had Kagome climb into a tunnel. "This leads to the roof, unless you have a ladder you can't get up there."

She squinted her eyes when she reached the opening. She crawled out and gasped. She could almost see the entire city. It was autumn so the roof wasn't steaming hot, it almost seemed a little cold.

"Wow! How did you discover this place? It's beautiful!"

"Actually I was running away from someone."

"Who, Sango and Miroku?"

"Nope."

"Your parents or grandparents?"

"Uh-uh."

"Your aunt?"

"Not even close."

"Hm, was it a relative?"

"Yeah."

"Were you running away from your older brother?"

"Yeah, how'd you know about him?"

"How else? Sango and Miroku told me, though they never told me anything other than the fact you guys had a very abusive relationship."

"That's an understatement."

Kagome leaned forward and looked at him.

"So what happened?"

"I think I did something especially cruel to him and he got pissed at me; like usual. He started chasing me, and I wound up on that balcony, I wasn't going down, I would have landed in the bushes, I knew that. So I jumped up and I found this passage way. If I remember right, Sesshomaru jumped off the balcony and almost twisted his ankle." Kagome crawled to the edge and looked over the side, it was at least five stories to fall, how he only came out with almost hurting his ankle scared her.

"Do you have any idea where your brother is?"

"Nope, and to tell the truth I really don't care."

"Don't you ever wish you could have had a good bond with him, one that only requires violence when you're bored and have nothing else to do?"

"I used to, but then we met and i never really thought of him again. I bet he's just as arrogant as he used to be."

"Hey, someone's here! Who is that pulling into the driveway?"

"I don't know- oh crap, it's him."

"Him?" she watched the man with long silver hair climb out of the limo, he had a fluffy boa looking accessory draped over his shoulder. "That looks like a woman."

"It's Sesshomaru."

"Your brother is gay?"

"No! He isn't gay! He just wears that weird fluffy doodad to make himself feel all high and mighty."

"You have one really screwed up family you know!"

"Well it would have been yours too if you hadn't ran away."

Kagome shrugged. "You know I think we should go greet him! Come on! I want to meet your family! All of the other weird people that are related to you in any way!"

"You've got to be joking, right" He sighed. "Well that means we're staying here for more than a few weeks!"

"But as long as Sango and Miroku have their wedding I'll get to meet most of them right?"

"Yeah, unfortunately that means I get to meet them again too."

"Come on Inuyasha it'll be interesting!"

"You say that as if it's a good thing, how do you always do that? Why do you always do that?"

"Do what?"

"Make it to where I can't say no."

"I guess sisters are good at that!" she teased.

"Fine let's go meet Mr. Arrogance." Inuyasha followed Kagome into the tunnel.


	4. Chapter 4

They found Sesshomaru in the hallway talking with Aunt Kimi.

Sesshomaru glared at Inuyasha when he saw him.

"I can take you to your old room, Sesshomaru."

"No thank you Kimi, I remember where it is. Besides I would like to greet my baby brother."

"Don't break anything you hear!" she patted his shoulder and walked off.

"It's the half-breed, and what is this, another human? How pathetic do you get?" Sesshomaru taunted.

"Nice to see you too, Fluffy."

Sesshomaru's eye twitched at the nickname. "So you finally decided to come back out of the dumps!"

"Yeah well at least I had someone to talk to that actually listened and cared."

"Hi there! I'm Kagome!" she held out her hand waiting for him to shake it. Sesshomaru just stared at her.

"It speaks. Amazing."

Kagome pulled her hand back immediately. "You are going to regret that!" She lifted her leg and kicked Sesshomaru in the stomach. She grabbed the bag that was beside Sesshomaru and threw it on his head. He fell back on the ground; then slowly sat up and stared at her.

"Serves you right." She said in a huff and walked away.

Miroku and Sango, who had turned the corner just in time to see Kagome beat up Sesshomaru, started cracking up.

"Geez Fluffy, getting beat up by a girl, none the less a human. You're getting pretty pathetic yourself." Inuyasha sneered before chasing after Kagome.

"Kagome come back!" he called running after her, "where are you going?"

"Back to the room."

"Uh Kagome the room is the other way."

"Ugh, I don't know my way around this place, you lead."

"You do know that you just made an enemy for life."

"Who cares? He deserved it!" she threw her arms up in the air. "Why did he keep using the word 'human' as if it were a curse, if he's your brother that makes him only half demon as well right? Unless hes half something else."

"He's really just my half-brother. We're brothers by out father, his mother was a full demon and so was our father, so Sesshomaru is a full-fledged demon, but my mother was human, making me half and half. And for reasons unknown, he hates all humans."

"He seemed fine with Kimi."

"Yeah, none of us get that either, he would always put up with her and Miroku's father."

"Hey, question, how old is Sesshomaru?"

"Um, well, I think he's twenty-nine or thirty, He's ten years older than me, give or take a year."

When they walked into the room Sango jumped on Kagome. "That was awesome! Nobody other than Inuyasha has ever tried something like that!" Sango sounded really, really hyper, plus she was squeezing Kagome to death.

"Where did you learn to fight like that?" Miroku stood up and pulled Sango off of Kagome.

Kagome was still out of breath so she simply pointed to Inuyasha.

"Do you know who taught her, Inuyasha?"

Kagome shook her head furiously. She looked at Inuyasha and pointed at him. Kagome started rubbing her throat, "Him!"

"Inuyasha taught you?" Miroku looked at Inuyasha then to Kagome and back again.

"Yeah, why is that so much of a shock to you?" Kagome asked as she walked over to the bed and sat down.

"Inuyasha has the patience of gravity, none whatsoever. Therefore he has never taught anybody anything." Sango patted his shoulder and gave him a big smile.

"Gee thanks, you guys sure do have a lot of faith in me." He retorted before pushing Sango's hand off his shoulder and going to sit beside Kagome.

"I guess when I said you and Miroku could catch up later, I wasn't kidding." Kagome pushed on Inuyasha's chest; he didn't even fight and fell back.

Miroku's watch beeped twice. "Well not right now. I've got to go, see you later." Miroku gave Sango a kiss before walking to the door, he turned back to face Inuyasha. "Stay doggie!" his reward was a mouthful of pillow.

"So how long are we going to stay here?"

"Sango when is your wedding?"

"Next month."

"We have to stick around here for a month?" Inuyasha shouted and bolted upright.

"Why did you ask?"

"I want to meet the family. Since I'm already on my way there, and we're going to be stuck here for a week, at least, I figured we might as well stay for this wedding and meet more wacky people." Kagome scooted sideways on the bed and leaned against the backboard.

"Hey Inuyasha, I just remembered something," Sango sat down in the chair.

"What that your head isn't screwed on right?" he laid back again and put his hands behind his head.

"No, but I know you'll think that after I tell you that we sent an invitation to your mother."

"You did what?" Inuyasha sat up so fast he flipped off the bed and landed on his head.

"Good going Inuyasha!" Kagome giggled as she helped him up again. They took their previous positions.

"You're not serious are you? Please tell me you didn't just say my mother is coming!" Inuyasha looked pitiful.

"What's so bad about your mother? You should be happy to actually have one!" Kagome pursed her lips and kicked Inuyasha in the side.

Kagome's and Sango's eyes met. Sango moved her finger to the side of her head and made a circling motion with it.

"I know she is, and I don't care that she's crazy. You should respect you mother and be happy when you see her!" she attempted to kick him again but he grabbed her ankle. When she tried to pull it back again the bottom half of her pants ripped off.

"Oops." Inuyasha muttered. "I didn't mean it! Please forgive me?"

"Inuyasha." Kagome growled. "You better find me a new pair, or else. I never rip your clothes, but you always manage to get mine ripped, how is that?"

Sango glanced between the two and waved a hand in front of Kagome's face. "Uh, we can go get you a new pair tomorrow, and for now you could wear something of mine." Sango hoped this would keep Kagome from killing Inuyasha.

Kagome's glare disappeared and she smiled at Sango. "Okay! Won't they be too long though?"

"Does it matter? You'll only have them on for today and some of tomorrow. If they are really long I could give you a pair of my high heels."

"Heels? I've only ever worn tennis shoes!"

"It's okay; it's not nearly as hard as it looks! Here, you can take a shower and I'll go get some pants for you." Sango stood up and pulled Kagome up too. She pointed to Inuyasha, "You get out."

"Why do I have the feeling that ever since I came back everybody hates me?" they heard Inuyasha sigh as he walked down the hall.

Kagome headed to the door.

"Where are you going?"

"Well, I figured I would go find a bathroom."

"Kagome, the bathroom is right there," Sango pointed at a door beside the bed.

"Does each room have its own bathroom?"

"Yeah, is that so weird?"

"Well, for me, yes." Kagome headed to the door and opened it; the bathroom was so shiny Kagome had to blink a few times before she could fully open her eyes.

"Towels should be under the sink."

"Which one? The shiny one, the shinier one, or the shiniest?" Kagome asked and poked her head out the door.

"They're completely the sa- oh I get it. Um, just open one up, you'll find one. I'll be right back." Sango walked out of the room, Kagome heard her in the hall talking; scratch that, shouting at Inuyasha.

She could only hear some of the words but she figured out that, to put it nicely, Sango had told him that he could use a shower too.

As she stepped in the shower she almost slipped and caught herself by grabbing the handles that controlled how hot or cold the water was. Unfortunately, the one she grabbed was the cold, it turned all the way on, and Kagome was blasted with ice water. She backed out of it faster than she knew she could and hit her head on the counter. She grabbed the back of her head and bit her lip to keep from screaming.

"Ow, ow, ow. Stupid water." Kagome whimpered as she got up and turned the cold back down.

This time she was much more careful as she got in the shower.

Kagome zoned out as the water soaked her from head to toe.

After a few minutes of standing there Kagome started talking to herself "So this is how I could have ended up?" she grinned to herself. "Bet you would have loved that, being treated like a spoiled little princess, wouldn't you mom, Sota." She hadn't thought about them in ages. _"As you can tell I'm still with Inuyasha, but now I'm also with his relatives. I have to say, this house is very, oh what's the word, lively. As for Inuyasha, I can't believe his reaction when Sango told him about his mother. I'm not sure how he could feel anything but love towards her. I know I still love you two, and you haven't even been with me."_

"We haven't left you." Kagome whipped her head to the left and glimpsed her mother and Sota fading in the mirror. Her mother was the same as Kagome remembered her, she was un-aged, but Sota was different. Unlike mother he had grown up, he was the way Kagome had always imagined him if he had reached sixteen. Only after their silhouettes had completely disappeared did it register to Kagome what had just happened, she had seen two people who had been dead for many years now in the mirror, she had seen ghosts, or maybe it was just her mind playing a trick on her. She hoped to find a logical explanation, but tried to force it out of her mind while she finished washing. It was no use, the words her mother had said kept ringing in her ears, she saw two different expressions on their faces, her mothers had seemed content and hopeful, but Sota's was longing, longing for something unknown to Kagome. It bothered her.

"What just happened," she muttered and stepped out of the shower. She kept an eye on the mirror as she grabbed the towel she had sat on the counter. As far as she could see there was nothing odd about the mirror. After wrapping the towel around her she opened the door and walked out into the room. To her surprise Inuyasha was sitting on the bed, his back turned to her. He was still in his red t-shirt and grey pants, and he also had a white towel draped over his wet hair.

"You do have a towel on right?" he asked, not looking at her, he knew how much she would yell at him if he had seen her naked.

"Yeah."

He turned to her. "I heard you talking to yourself," she gave him a questioning glance before siting beside him. "I heard you say something to someone, your mother, and someone named Sota. You were only half talking to yourself weren't you?" Kagome simply nodded, her soaked hair swung as she did so. "Who is Sota?"

"He's my little brother; he died because of a tumor when he was four. He was a year younger than me." The memories they were able to share undusted themselves, a tear ran down her cheek.

"Hey, you okay?" he wrapped his arm around her. "What's wrong?" She subconsciously leaned against him.

"He was only four; he didn't get to live a normal life, he- he had been born with cancer. His first seven months were spent in the hospital, and then three months after he turned three he was back in the hospital. If I had any wish it would be for him to not have had cancer, if it weren't for that he'd be alive, and he could have grown up." More tears welled up, the back of her throat burned from holding them in.

"Would you have really wanted him to have grown up on the streets like us? To have had to become a thief?" she shook her head. "Maybe it was better he did leave. If he was my younger brother I wouldn't have wanted him to have grown up with us."

Kagome remembered her mother's words. "He isn't gone. Neither is mom." She leaned away from him. "Inuyasha, I know they're still with me, and they still love me the same way I love them."

At that time Sango walked in carrying some clothes and glared at Inuyasha. She grabbed the closest thing she could find, which just happened to be the pillow from the chair, and threw it at him. "What are you doing in here you pervert?" she yelled. "Get out, now!"

Kagome quietly giggled as Inuyasha stomped over to Sango and shoved the pillow in her face, and then stormed out of the room.

"Here, I brought you a shirt too." She handed Kagome the black pants, an orange spaghetti strap top, and a white lace cover-up.

After changing Kagome walked back out into the room and held the pants up so they didn't drag. She pursed her lips when Sango laughed.

"Well, at least you look pretty!" Sango grabbed her arm and pulled her over to a mirror.

Kagome had to admit, she did look much better now that she wasn't wearing clothes that were swallowing her.

"Now, let's go scare Inuyasha!" Sango had an evil twinkle in her eye.

"But what about the pants? They're way too long on me!"

"Oh right, come to my room, I'll find you something!"

"You're going to make me wear heels?" Kagome whimpered.

"Yes, don't worry; I'm sure you'll catch on quickly."

Kagome followed Sango down the hall and realized that they weren't too far off from the room Kagome guessed had been confirmed as hers. She saw the door and the dent in the frame.

"Oh ya, sorry for the door!" Kagome said as they walked in.

"Huh? Why are you apologizing for the dent?"

"Because Inuyasha and I did that, and I know he's too stubborn to apologize."

"And how exactly did you two do that?" she opened a closet to reveal millions of outfits. Kagome's mouth hung open for a few seconds.

"Oh, um, we pretended to be servants from here and helped move in a sofa, we accidentally hit the frame as we were bringing it in."

"You actually brought it up here? I would just dump it near the door and finish the job. Here you go, try these." Sango pulled out a pair of boots, when it reached halfway up the calf it had strings to hold it up. The heel itself was almost three inches but luckily was thick.

"And that's where you mess up! If you leave it by the door, then someone will see it and wonder why it wasn't taken to the room then get suspicious so on, but if you take it to the room, no one will think twice about whom you are, therefore you can go on with the job without fault." Kagome grabbed the shoes and slipped them on. After lacing them, she stood up and attempted to walk in them. She tripped but regained her balance before any damage could be done.

Someone knocked at the door. "Hello?" Sango called.

"Hey Sango, know where Kagome is?" It was Inuyasha; he had come looking for her.

The two of them walked to the door and opened it. He was standing there tapping his foot in annoyance. "Well, do you or-" he stopped when he spotted Kagome behind Sango. His mouth hung open slightly at first then he regained his composure. "Wow."

Sango stood aside so as Inuyasha could get a better look at her. Kagome did a twirl, but she forgot she was wearing the boots and started to fall over. Inuyasha caught her, like always, and helped her get her balance again.

"She made me put on three inch heels!" Kagome pointed a finger at Sango accusingly. She leaned against the frame and lifted one of her legs so that Inuyasha could get a look at the heel.

"Oh don't be silly!" Sango laughed, "They're only two and a half inches tall!"

"Women are insane!" Inuyasha muttered. Both of the ladies glared at him.

Someone came up behind Inuyasha and put a hand on his shoulder. "Bad thing to say." It was Miroku; he walked past Inuyasha shaking his head in shame. He didn't even notice Kagome because as he walked past her his eyes were still closed. He gave Sango a kiss and walked over to the bed. After sitting a bag down he turned and faced them.

"Ah Kagome, I see that you have some new clothes!" He smiled that smile that got in Kagome's nerves. "You look nice!" He walked past her again and looked at Inuyasha as he passed. "You're welcome, you have no idea how badly I just saved your life."

"Thank you, Miroku!" Kagome seemed to forget about Inuyasha, for the moment. "At least someone around here knows how to compliment!"

"Uh, I just remembered something!" Miroku stuttered as he jumped between Inuyasha and the girls. "As I was coming here I stopped by the kitchen. They said supper would be ready soon."

Inuyasha took off down the hall; whether a word referring to food or the fact that he needed to get away from the girls for a little bit was the reason he did no one could tell.

"Supper, but what about lunch?" Kagome asked; she grabbed Sango's shoulder for support as they started down the hall.

"Well, you were asleep, and we were in Inuyasha's room having the clown war." Miroku shrugged.

"Oh, okay. Now that you've mentioned food I'm really hungry." Kagome let go of Sango and slowly and clumsily started walking on her own.

"So that means you're going to stuff your face?" Sango giggled.

"Nah, but I know Inuyasha will. He always eats more than humanly possible, and then he doesn't even act full. It's kind of creepy."

"Yeah, but hat's Inuyasha, he's always been like that." Miroku grabbed Kagome's arm as she stumbled on a rug.

"Thanks. One question, Inuyasha knew who you were." She turned to look at Sango. "Which means you all knew each other before he left. How did you all meet?"

"Now that is a funny story!" Sango started laughing so hard she barely managed the sentence. Kagome glanced at her then gave a questioning look to Miroku for some answers. Miroku's entire face was a tiny bit pink.

"Are you blushing?" Kagome grinned. "Hmm, I wonder why."

"He's embarrassed!"

"Sango, you're not really going to tell her are you?" Miroku's eyes grew.

"Now why would I do a thing like that?" she gave him her best impression of an innocent face.

Kagome glanced between them many times before finally speaking up. "What the heck is going on?"

Sango glanced at Miroku then at Kagome. "Later," she mouthed.

Miroku had seen what Sango had said and pleaded with her the rest of the time it took to get to the dinning room.

As the arrived a man opened the door and Kagome gasped. The room was huge; the ceiling was fifteen feet high and stone support beams seemed to be dripping down like in the old cathedrals, the walls were off-white with silver and gold trimmings, and the table was a deep cherry wood with gold designs crawling over it.

Kimi was perched at the head of the table farthest from the door; her head rested on her interlocking fingers, and she looked ticked. Sesshomaru sat to Kimi's right; he was leaning back in his chair staring at the kindling fire and shooting glances towards Inuyasha occasionally. Inuyasha sat two chairs down from Kimi; he tried to fool Kagome with a fake smile but she saw something was bothering him, and it seemed to be eating him.

Kagome sat down on Inuyasha's left, the seat farther away from his aunt. Miroku and Sango sat across from them; a growl emitted itself from Sesshomaru as Miroku pulled out the chair beside him.

Sango and Miroku spent the entire meal attempting to get stories from Inuyasha and Kagome; they were more successful with Kagome. Sesshomaru and Kimi chatted some but not a lot. When it was over Kimi was the first to leave the room.

As she walked by Inuyasha she leaned down to his ear, "Don't try to leave tonight, I will do as I want, and I know you don't want to leave her." She made sure she was loud enough for Kagome to overhear across the tiny gap between the two.

Inuyasha stood up and walked out of the room; followed by Kagome. He walked on not even realizing she was behind him.

"Inuyasha?" he stopped startled.

He turned to face her. His expression showed pity for a mere second then turned to pure concern.

"What was that about? Why did she say that?" Kagome asked feebly.

Inuyasha turned the knob to the door beside him. "Go to bed, tomorrow is going to be a really long day." With that said he walked into the room and very nearly slammed the door.

Kagome could faintly hear him cursing as she walked next door and entered her room. She slipped off her boots and sat on the chair beside the desk. She noticed the computer for the first time; the entire thing was black and silver. She pressed a few buttons; the computer made a soft humming noise as it came to life, and the monitor shone white for a few seconds before going to a sky blue screen. She clicked on the Guest user choice and started exploring the works of a computer.

Things will be explained in the next chapter! I promise! now, let me go to sleep... AND DON'T FORGET TO REVIEW! 

killnarakusetmefree 


	5. Chapter 5

Wow, i can't believe that I'm on the fifth chapter already! I keep telling myself, "Oh, I'll update in a week." but then i always end up not being able to hold out that long. Heehee. Well, on with the story!  


Inuyasha lay on his bed, hands behind his head, staring at the ceiling. His conversation with his aunt he had experienced refused to leave him alone.

"_Inuyasha, the girl who was with you, her name is Kagome am I right?" She said with no emotion. He had shivered at the thought of how someone could be so much like Sesshomaru._

"_Yeah, what of it?" He gave her a blank look._

"_If she is who I suspect, then she is the little girl I had attempted to adopt twelve years ago."_

_At this point Sesshomaru began to show a rare interest in the conversation. _

"_What does that matter?" Inuyasha dreaded the fact that she had figured it out, and so soon as well._

"_It means that she is not yet eighteen." When Inuyasha scrunched his eyebrows in confusion Kimi attempted to make it clear for him without flat-out telling him. "She needs a home, a real home."_

"_No, she doesn't; she hasn't in the past so why would she now?" he kept his voice in check but desperately wanted to yell at her when he realized what she was saying._

"_Why do you think she was willing to stay here for so long? Now that she has seen what this type of life has to offer she realized she wants to stay here. She doesn't want to be out on the streets; wouldn't you want her to be happy?" She wanted to continue but stopped when Inuyasha interrupted her._

_He growled, his hands were balled up into fists on the table and his head bowed. "You only met her today and were only in the same room with her for no more than five minutes; you don't know what's in her heart. I don't even know that and I've known her twelve years."_

"_Suit yourself, but I will adopt her and you won't change that fact." _

_Minutes later the others arrived and Inuyasha could tell his lame attempt of a smile had come off pitiful._

He walked out to the balcony and Kimi's words before she left the table played in his head again. He slammed his fist on the stone railing and then started rubbing it in pain. "Crap!" He started to walk back in but Kagome ran out onto her balcony.

"Inuyasha? What's wrong? What happened?"

"It's nothing; I just hit the railing and hurt my hand." He glanced at her still in the clothes from earlier. "I thought I told you to go to bed?"

She sighed and rolled her eyes, "Inuyasha it's like eight, I'm not going to bed now; besides, I want to know what's bothering you." She climbed over the short railing that separated them and sat down on it. "I'm not leaving your side until you tell me."

"Why do you insist on knowing?" he folded his arms and started to walk back inside, before he could close the door she ran in. "Gah! Go away!"

"I told you I wasn't going to leave you alone until you told me!" she pouted.

"Fine! My aunt is going to adopt you tomorrow! There, I told you!"

"Why are you so upset about that? I know she's your aunt and all, but it's not like she's adopting you." Kagome was stumped.

"It means that you're not leaving here, and I'm not about to leave you here! She knows the only way to keep me here is for you to stay here, and she needs me here for it!" He slapped his hand over his mouth after the last sentence.

"It? Inuyasha, What do you mean by it?" Kagome walked up to him and tried to see his face but didn't succeed.

"It's nothing." He said before walking out of the room and headed off to the roof.

"I've never seen him so flustered before, and what was about this thing his aunt wants him for?" Kagome started back for her room. _'First I see mom and Sota, what's next, gramps and father? Then there's this thing Inuyasha is wanted for, whatever it might be."_ She was lost in her thoughts and didn't even hear Sango calling out to her as she walked into her room. She sat down at the desk right before Sango barged in.

"Hey! Why were you ignoring me?" Sango saw the dazed expression on Kagome's face. "Anyway, I brought this for you tonight." She tossed a silk nightgown onto Kagome's bed.

As Sango started to walk out of the room Kagome stopped her. "Wait." Sango turned back to her; Kagome's face was blank as she stared at the computer. "Sango, do you ever…" She stopped, trying to find the right words. "Sango, do you ever see things in this house that shouldn't be?"

"What do you mean?"

"Like things that are impossible."

"Things like _what,_ exactly?" Sango had a growing fear and hoped Kagome wasn't going to say what she thought she was.

"People, people who should be dead." Kagome answered bluntly, she shot a glance to Sango and realized she said something she shouldn't have. "Sango, do you know what I'm talking about?"

Sango almost fell over in shock. "It's happening again!" she bolted out the door and ran down the hall yelling for Miroku.

"I am just about fed up with this! I want to know what is going on!" Kagome stormed out of the room and headed to the place she hoped was the balcony to the roof.

The room she entered wasn't the right one but she didn't realize that until she had gone out on the balcony. She looked around and realized that not only was it the wrong room, but that it was also a better room. She hadn't realized that there was another balcony closer to the mouth of the tunnel. After a few terrorizing moments of climbing to the opening she was inside and crawling towards the only place she thought Inuyasha would be. She crawled through the opening to find she was right about Inuyasha; he was lying back staring up at the clouds that blocked out the moon and stars.

He sat up and looked at her with confusion, "How did you get up here?"

"There was a balcony closer to the entrance and I was able climb over to it." She said in a matter-of-fact tone.

Inuyasha nodded his head in understanding. "Sorry."

"Huh?"

"Im sorry for blowing up on you like that. I didn't mean to."

"I can tell you're stressed out as is, and most of those are being caused by being here."

"You have no idea how right you are." He mumbled.

"Inuyasha, you mentioned something about your aunt wanting you for something, and when I told Sango I had seen some things in this house she freaked. What's going on?"

"What did you see?" he was wishing for the same thing Sango had, only to be disappointed.

"I saw mom and Sota. It was when I was taking my shower; I was thinking about how my life would have turned out if we hadn't run away and then they just appeared in the mirror."

"_It's back."_ "She doesn't need me; she already found someone to open it. Damn." Inuyasha threw his head against the roof.

"Inuyasha? Open what? Why are you guys acting all freaked out about it?"

Inuyasha was silent for a while; debating whether or not he should tell her then how much he should tell her. "Don't laugh at what I tell you, it may seem stupid and unrealistic-"

"Inuyasha, I saw my dead mother and brother, I don't think what you tell me is going to sound stupid. I just want some sort of explanation." Kagome rolled her eyes.

"Well, in short this house is haunted, cursed, or whatever you want to call it."

"How, why?" she glanced at the moon which was starting to peek from behind a barely existent gap in the clouds.

"Beats the heck outta me." He tried to figure out how many more nights he had until it was the full moon. "But for some reason whoever comes inside this house has spirits who join them. The people who were closest to them and are dead, their soul resides in this mansion when the person they're tied to is anywhere on the grounds."

"So why did only my mother and brother show up; why not my grandpa?"

"Why are you asking me?"

"Because I know you're holding out on me, and I want to know more."

"Sorry to disappoint you but I don't know more." It started to sprinkle, the poured down rain. "C'mon! Let's get inside!" Inuyasha shouted.

Kagome carefully crawled onto Inuyasha and jumped off the side of the roof landing on the balcony Kagome had used. Once inside they hurried to their rooms.

"Inuyasha," Kagome said before he had a chance to enter his room.

He stopped; he had the doorknob halfway turned. "Huh?"

"What about the part about you saying something had been opened?"

"The curse was sealed fifteen years ago, and now Aunt Kimi has obviously re-opened it."

"Couldn't we just re-seal it? It can't be that hard to do that."

"Kagome, it's not as simple as you think." He glanced at her before opening the door. "Last time it was sealed, my father had to die; that's how to seal it, someone's life." He walked into his room before she could react and closed the door behind him, locking her out.

"Oh." She entered her room and changed into the nightgown Sango had given her. It was a light pink that reached just below her butt. The trim at the top and bottom was a black lace. Kagome walked out onto the balcony and felt like screaming. _"The only thing fate ever hands to me is death and devastation. Whoever is in control of that should die instead; it would make the world a happier place."_ She thought as she leaned against one of the glass doors and slumped to the ground, letting the rain run over her.

Inuyasha didn't even notice the man leaning against the balcony door as he walked to the bathroom. After tugging off his shirt and grabbing a towel he headed back to the room.

"Inuyasha, how much did you tell her?" Miroku had moved and was now standing beside the door.

"Gah, don't do that!" Inuyasha flinched and was tempted to punch him. "Tell her what?"

"Sango told me she saw the spirits, and I know she wouldn't have let it go, so she obviously came to you. How much did you tell her?"

"Not enough to get her involved."

"Really, I doubt that. You told her that it has been sealed before and partially how to seal it. If that's not getting her involved then I don't know what is."

"Miroku, you know fairly well that I wouldn't get her involved."

"On purpose." Miroku pulled something from his pocket handed two to Inuyasha and popped the other into his mouth. "Give one to Kagome."

"What is it?"

"It'll help with the spirits; my father came up with them the first time."

"Funny, I don't remember any candies to get rid of the ones who haunted you."

"He came up with it a few days before it ended. He made one and then gave me the formula, I made some earlier, they're actually quite fast and easy to make."

Inuyasha ate one and started gagging. "Gah! What is that supposed to taste like?"

"I guess you got one of the bad ones. They're supposed to taste like strawberries, but I ran out of flavoring near the end so some of them are just all natural, I guess you got one of those."

_Kagome was lying in her bed on the verge of sleep. Two figures appeared beside her; her mother and brother. She didn't even flinch, as if she was expecting them. Sota sat down on the bed and started pulling her hair lightly._

"_What are you guys doing here?" Kagome had a faint feeling that this was wrong._

"_We've come to see you, what else?" Sota grinned at her._

"_We knew we would see you again, but not so soon." Their mother crawled over Kagome and lay down beside her. She hugged her daughter and smiled when Kagome didn't object and let her pull her in close. "We've missed you," she muttered into Kagome's ear._

Kagome woke as she felt some one pick her up. Kagome could taste salt and realized she had been crying.

"I've missed you too." Kagome whispered and tried to hold back the tears that wanted to fall.

"Huh?" Inuyasha looked down at Kagome confused.

"They were in my dream." Kagome leaned against Inuyasha's chest. "Inuyasha? Do you see your father?"

He was a bit startled by the question but didn't show it "No, I don't. I can't."

"What do you mean you can't?"

He sat her down on her bed. "I can't see anybody anymore. And you don't want to either; eat this." He handed her the candy and she did as he told her.

"Why can't you and why don't I want to see them?" She said after swallowing.

"That thing you just ate does something to block them out or something; Miroku didn't tell me how it worked." Inuyasha grabbed the towel around his neck and began to dry his hair again. "They may seem like it at first, but they aren't Casper the friendly ghost. They become jealous after a while and then try to harm and possibly even kill you. A spirit's only desire is to be whole again, alive again. Eventually they come to loath us who are alive." He walked to the balcony doors and turned to Kagome, "You might want to be careful what you wear from now on; Miroku almost saw you."

Kagome turned red and gasped at Inuyasha, "So you're saying that you did?"

"Yes!" he jumped back over to his balcony and walked inside before she could start yelling at him. _"And you were beautiful."_ "What am I thinking? I'm not turning into that pervert, am I?" Inuyasha shivered and crawled into the bed.

Neither Inuyasha nor Kagome had realized just how tired they were until they were comfortable and had actually fallen asleep.

I'm amazed, this is the first story that i've actually ever had a plan for, okay so it's just a basic idea of what i want to happen, but it's more than any of my other ones have ever had! I hope you liked it! REVIEW! PEOPLE I AM NOT STUPID! I HAVE 110 OR SO HITS, BUT ONLY FOUR REVIEWS! AND THEY ARE FROM THE SAME PERSON! I WANT MORE REVIEWS! I DON'T CARE IF THEY'RE FLAMES BUT I WANT REVIEWS! Okay, so i've got that out of my system, now i can... well, I don't know what I'll do now, write some more i guess.

killnarakusetmefree  



	6. Chapter 6

"Wake up sleeping beauty!" Miroku chanted as he barged into Inuyasha's room and started jumping on the bed.

"Mmm, go away!" Inuyasha groaned. He lashed out with his arm and unknowingly caught Miroku behind the knees. Miroku fell down beside Inuyasha, their noses almost touching. Inuyasha opened his eyes slowly and screamed. "What the crap?" He scrambled backwards and fell off the bed. "What the hell do you think you're doing?"

"Just getting you up, Honey!" Miroku batted his eyelashes and grinned innocently.

"Ugh have you been drinking or something?" Inuyasha got up and walked to the bathroom where he had left his shirt the night before. The two walked into the hallway and heard Kagome groan from her bedroom and then Sango telling her to get up. A few minutes later the two walked out of the room and greeted the men.

"Hellooooo!" Miroku said in a high pitched voice.

"You are _never_ getting coffee again! You hear that?" Sango seethed.

"My dear Sango, Why ever would you say a thing like that?" He gave her a toothy grin.

His reward was a slap, and a red mark on his cheek. "I warned you not to call me that."

"Okay lovebirds, let's go get breakfast." Inuyasha ordered.

After another slap for Miroku they set off down the hall. Breakfast was uneventful; well for the most part.

"So Kagome, which store shall we go to first?" Sango was smiling with excitement.

"I have no-"

"She will not be going anywhere with you today, Sango." Kimi Stated coldly from the head of the table.

Both Sango and Miroku asked why.

"I am taking her to the adoption agency today."

"_Curse my under-agedness."_ Kagome growled in her mind. "Must it be today?" she asked as politely as she could.

"Yes, it must."

"May I ask why?"

"No you may not."

The rest of the meal was spent in silence. Afterwards Kagome told the others she would see them later, and she and Kimi headed off.

"Do you think she'll be okay with Kimi?" Miroku asked.

"She better." Inuyasha growled.

"Why don't you follow them? You're fast enough to keep up." Sesshomaru suggested.

They stared at him, shocked that he would openly give Inuyasha advice that didn't even concern him.

"Can't believe I'm saying this to you," Inuyasha headed for the door, "But thanks!"

"I didn't know you had feelings for your brother other than hate!" Miroku smirked, when he went to give Sesshomaru a pat on the back his hand was smacked away mindlessly.

"I don't, but the cur-" Sesshomaru stopped abruptly when he realized what he almost let slip. "The girl is different." He lied. _"You Ignorant fools, you don't even realize the true reason why we need both of them here." _ He left the room and the final two sniggered at what they thought was the beginning of new feelings.

Inuyasha made sure to keep the car in view, but didn't get close enough to be seen. When they entered the building he waited a few seconds and followed. If it weren't for his ability to pick up peoples' scent he would have gotten lost. He stood at the door but didn't go in; Aunt Kimi would have murdered him if he had.

Filling out all the papers seemed to take half the day, and when they finally finished Inuyasha bolted down hall as the door opened. Kagome was the first out the door and thought she saw silver hair and grey pants dart behind a corner.

"_Was that; no he wouldn't be here, but what if it was?"_ Kagome's mind raced, she finally decided that it had been Inuyasha. As they walked out the front door Kagome hesitated at the top of the steps half expecting Inuyasha to jump out of a tree and take her somewhere, but nothing spectacular happened.

"Kagome, is something wrong?" Kimi stopped at the bottom and looked back when she realized Kagome wasn't following.

"Huh? Oh, no. I was just thinking." She hurried down the steps. "Kimi, why are you so set on having Inuyasha stay at your house?"

"Do you know about the house?" Kimi stepped into the car.

"If you mean the curse, then yes, I do."

"Well, I'm going to seal it again. Someone released Naraku and we must lock him away again."

"Who is Naraku?"

"So you don't know everything." She let out a loud sigh. "What do you know?"

"Well, the spirits, and how they can become jealous and harm you, Inuyasha's father and how he died sealing it. That's all."

"_He doesn't want her involved. It's too bad that I have to disappoint him, the poor boy."_ "Naraku is a man who used to work in the mansion; when he became old and frail he struck a deal with mindless demons. He wanted immortality, in return they would be able to roam the earth freely, unnoticed. As he slowly recovered the souls of some of the demons broke free and took the form of people who have left some of the other inhabitants of the house, what very few know about the spirits is that they are not truly the spirits of the ones we have lost; simply the reflection of what we want the people to be. Though, after weeks of containing the form of the loved one, the soul of that real loved one slowly starts to piece itself together inside the demon spirit. That is why at first they seem friendly and later are harmful. We lost one person because of Naraku and his demons; that is how we know they can not only harm but also kill us." The car pulled up to the gates and proceeded to the front door where Kimi told Kagome to go to the library and wait for her to explain the rest.

Kimi went to fetch Sesshomaru and soon they were all gathered in the library.

"What are we here for?" Sesshomaru asked glanced at Kagome.

"We're telling her." Kimi said, he noticed her hand resting on the spot she normally kept the box Inuyasha and Kagome had attempted to steal.

"So, if I'm right, you didn't re-open or unlock or whatever Naraku?"

Both Kimi and Sesshomaru gave her a look as if she were insane. "Of course not." Sesshomaru barked.

"No, I didn't, what gave you that idea?"

"Well, Inuyasha thought you wanted him here so you could open it." Kagome answered feebly.

"The mongrel jumps to conclusions, you should know that."

"Stop it. The only way to seal him is with the bond of demon and human, and someone with much spiritual powers like a priestess or monk. Inuyasha's and Sesshomaru's father wasn't the only one who was used to seal Naraku away; the other was Inuyasha's mother. She was a priestess, and the love between them for Inuyasha was enough for the bond. This time Inuyasha alone is the bond, he is human and demon by blood, so we need him for the first part."

"But he is dead and she isn't; why is that? It doesn't make any sense."

"One must die, he gave himself up for Inuyasha's sake; he knew she could be a better mother than he could a father."

"Who is the other person, the one who will be with Inuyasha?" Kagome was slowly beginning to realize what they were forcing Inuyasha into.

Sesshomaru stood up and walked out of the room, leaving Kimi to finish. "You are the priestess." Kimi stood up and walked over to Kagome. She put a hand on her shoulder and looked strait into her face. "Do not tell any of this to Inuyasha."

Kagome sat there in shock, unblinking and unmoving, the realization of what they had just said finally sinking in. Either she or Inuyasha were going to die, and they had no choice but to go along with it. A tear slid down her cheek before she ran out of the room. She barely noticed as she ran past Sango and Miroku, and then them following after her. When she finally stopped running she found herself on the balcony that allowed her to reach the roof. As she entered the tunnel she saw the balcony doors open and Sango and Miroku standing there confused. She sat with her chin resting on her knees, tears soaking them.

After going back inside Sango and Miroku went to find Inuyasha. The found him in out on his balcony staring off into space. As a breeze went by Inuyasha could smell salt water.

"Inuyasha, there you are!" Miroku panted as they walked outside.

"Waddya want?"

"Well, we were in the hall and Kagome ran past us and she was crying, we chased her out onto one of the balconies on the top floor but she wasn't on the balcony, we don't know where she could be. You have to find her; she was really upset."

After a few seconds he realized what the scent had been from. "I know where she is." He walked out back into and then out of his room, headed for the roof.

When he saw Kagome he was shocked, he had never seen her like this before. Miroku and Sango hadn't been kidding when they said she was upset. At first he couldn't think of what he should do. He went over to her and sat right behind her. He wrapped his arms around her and leaned her up against him. She didn't even notice what he was doing.

"Hey Kagome, what's up?" he softly asked.

"_Why am I only allowed pain?" _ Kagome noticed that she was leaning against someone, Inuyasha. _"No, I was allowed him; I was given some help, that of which became even bigger through him. I can't let them control us; I have to figure out how it could be done differently."_

"Kagome, hey say something." He felt her move to get up, and released her.

She stood up and turned to face him, this time he was sure that she was getting through whatever was bothering her. She had a small smile, the last of her tears were wiped away and she held a hand out to help him up.

"Thank you," she said, her voice was strong and even. _"I'm going to find a loop hole that doesn't end with either of us dieing. I'm going to try and help Inuyasha myself."_ "I just hope I can in time." She added aloud.

"What?"

"Nothing. Let's get off this roof."


	7. Chapter 7

_Okay, here is chapter 7. The time between my updates will grow; school starts for me tomorrow and since im going to be top-grade I'm going to have lots of stuff to get ready for, not much staying up until 6:00 writing or anything. (which is when I do most of my writing)On with chapter 7!_

"Hey Sango, do you think we should wait for them?" Miroku asked. They watched as Inuyasha strolled down the hall, on his way to find Kagome.

"Nah, hey, I haven't played in a while, and I don't think you have either, let's go practice." Sango smirked and started for their bedroom.

"I'm fine with that." Miroku followed her and waited for her to come back out of the room with the black two foot long black case.

Inuyasha took Kagome back to her room and then proceeded to wander around the house, but entered the room Sango and Miroku were in and sat down against the wall listening to the two play.

After a while Kagome gave up attempting to find solutions to the problem about her and Inuyasha; she left her room to find Kimi. As she walked into the entrance room she heard music, a violin and a keyboard. She came to a room with a metal door; this is where it was resonating from. The tune seemed familiar, after a few seconds Kagome slowly opened the door and walked in. Sango was handling the violin and playing from memory, and Miroku was on the keyboard, playing the accompaniment perfectly also without sheet music. She spotted Inuyasha leaning against the wall swaying a bit along with the music. Miroku glanced at her, but took no notice otherwise. As she had stepped in they were about five seconds into a new song. Kagome found words forming in her mind, lyrics to Something More by Sugarland. Before she knew what was happening Kagome had started singing along.

_'…I'm out the door._

_Yeah, the freeway's standing still today.  
It's gonna make me late, and that's for sure.  
I'm running out of gas and out of time;  
Never gonna make it there by nine._'

Miroku stopped playing for a few seconds then regained his composure and began again with a perfect jump in.

'_There's gotta be something more!  
Gotta be more than this  
I need a little less hard time  
I need a little more bliss  
I'm gonna take my chances  
Taking a chance I might  
Find what I'm looking for  
There's gotta be something more_'

Inuyasha opened his eyes and gawked at her. He had never heard her sing; who new she could even pull it off, and not to mention the fact that she wasn't being shy. She hit every note and word on queue.

'_Five years and there's no doubt  
That I'm burnt out, I've had enough_'

Sango glanced at Kagome but was able to keep her pace; nothing ever stopped her from playing.

'_So now boss man, here's my two weeks  
I'll make it short and sweet, so listen up  
I could work my life away, but why?  
I got things to do before I die_'

Kagome saw Inuyasha staring at her and faltered but picked right back, the fact she could sing this good stumped her just as much as it did him.

'_There's gotta be something more!  
Gotta be more than this  
I need a little less hard time  
I need a little more bliss  
I'm gonna take my chances  
Taking a chance I might  
Find what I'm looking for  
There's gotta be something more_  
_Some believe in destiny, and some believe in fate  
I believe that happiness is something we create  
You best believe that I'm not gonna wait  
'Cause there's gotta be something more'_

All thoughts of Kagome's previous mission and the fact that she or Inuyasha were going to die fled from her mind.

_  
'I get home 7:30 the house is dirty, but it can wait  
Yeah, 'cause right now I need some downtime  
To drink some red wine and celebrate  
Armageddon could be knocking at my door  
but I ain't gonna answer thats for sure.  
There's gotta be something- gotta be something more!_

_Gotta be more than this  
I need a little less hard time  
I need a little more bliss  
I'm gonna take my chances  
Taking a chance I might  
Find what I'm looking for  
There's gotta be something more!_

_Got to be- got to be- got to be more!'_

Sango and Miroku finished the song and then joined Inuyasha in the staring fest.

"Whoa, you're good; like really good." Sango complimented.

"When did you start singing?" Miroku asked as he flipped the switch on the keyboard.

"Um, right now?" Kagome innocently chuckled, this was kind of awkward. "I haven't even heard that song before; I knew the tune, but not the words."

"Where did Kagome go? What did you do with her?" Inuyasha asked half kidding, half not.

"I'm just as shocked as you so give me a break!" Kagome plopped down beside Inuyasha and poked him behind the ear. He winced and almost fell over letting out a yelp. Sango and Miroku started laughing at his reaction to this simple action.

"Works every time." She grinned evilly at him.

"Eh, at least I know it's you, nobody has possessed you or anything." He grumbled and shot glares at the other two to stop their laughter.

"How can you be so sure?" she made an 'ooh'ing noise and wiggled her fingers in his face to tease him.

"I trust the poke," he said with a strait face then started laughing with the others.

"Wow, such a genius remark!" Sango giggled.

"Ah shut it!"

"So how long have you guys been playing?"

"Well I've been playing since I was able to write, about, oh, fifteen years now. Sango started when she was eight, so that would be twelve years now. She hasn't made much improvement since her second year of playing; she's like a freaking prodigy!" Miroku started folding the legs on the keyboard so he could stow it away in the corner.

"You know, if you got a drummer, you would have a band." Inuyasha suggested. "Just don't start wearing those tight leather outfits. Those things are ridiculous."

"Yes, especially on you." Kagome remarked.

"You've worn one?" Miroku's mouth was hanging open in awe.

"Hell no! I would never put one of those on!" Inuyasha shouted and jumped up.

"Hey Sango, can I see that?" Kagome asked before Sango could get the violin in the case.

"Sure."

"Kagome sat the violin on her lap and felt the smooth wood and began plucking the strings in random orders.

"I could teach you if you want." Sango offered.

"I don't think I'd have enough time." She handed it back to Sango.

"What do you mean? You were just adopted by Aunt Kimi; I think you're going to be here for a while." Miroku asked.

"You don't understand."

"Then make us understand."

"Sorry, I can't."

"Why not?"

"Because I was asked not to and it doesn't matter there isn't anything you can do to change it."

"Well, if we can't do anything about it, what does it matter if you tell us?" Inuyasha reasoned.

"Kimi doesn't want me telling you, and I don't want to tell you. The only one who can do anything about it is me, and the fewer who know the less pain there is."

"Stop with the excuses, just tell us."

"Inuyasha, you saw how bad I was earlier, how many times have you ever seen me like that?"

"Never."

"See, you don't want to know."

"I think we do."

"Fine. I know all about the curse, all of it; even more than you. Like the spirits for instance; they aren't the actual souls of our loved ones, they're really spawned from Naraku, demon souls that broke away from him. They become hostile towards us when the real soul starts to take over. And I know someone died last time." Kagome heard Sango gasp. "Compared to the other thing that's nothing."

"Kagome, what else do you know?" Inuyasha wanted to know more but had a feeling that he would regret asking.

After a long silence Kagome said what she wanted to forget. "You and I are the ones who have to seal him. I know what that means. One of us will die, the other will live, and life will go on as if nothing had happened. Just like with your parents."

"Kagome," Sango started to move to Kagome but stopped when she said more.

"I'm going to try to find another way, so that either of us has to die, but if I can't-" Kagome turned her head on its side and gave Inuyasha a pitiful smile, "I'm not letting you die, Inuyasha."

He wrapped his arms around her and pulled her close, "I don't want you to either. I'll help you anyway I can." He muttered through her hair.

"Thank you. I need to know more, I was actually going to find Kimi when I found you guys, and I still need to talk with her."

"I'll go with you." Inuyasha said as he finally let go of her.

"No, she said not to tell you about it. She can't know I told you. I'll talk to her alone."

"I really don't care what she thinks I should know and not know. I'm going with you!"

"You said you would help me any way you could, so stay here! If she thinks I haven't told you she will trust me more therefore she will tell me more."

"She has a point, Inuyasha." Miroku commented.

"Feh, try not to get her suspicious though." He crossed his arms and gave Miroku an annoyed glare.

"Kay." She walked out the door, then walked right back in. "Um, do you have any idea where she is?"

"Well, Sesshomaru would know." Sango said.

"Okay, so where is Sesshomaru?"

"He's probably wandering around outside, but if Sango hadn't said something I would have told you where Aunt Kimi was." Inuyasha scoffed. "Last time I saw her she was in the maze."

"Maze?"

"Yeah the hedge maze, it's the most annoying piece of crap I ever saw."

"I'm really bad at mazes, especially the live ones." Kagome gave Sango a pleading glance. "Are you any good at them?"

"No, but Miroku is has that thing memorized."

"I'll take you there."

"Um, thanks."

"Don't try anything." Sango and Inuyasha warned at the same time.

"Why would I do that?"

"Because old habits die hard, being perverted as one of those habits." Sango's foot started to tap in annoyance.

"Well, you've nothing to worry about. Firstly, I wouldn't try anything because I am now an engaged man, and secondly, I'm scared of her." Miroku glanced at her from the corner of his eye.

"C'mon, pervert." Kagome grabbed the back of his dark purple shirt.

"Gah! You're choking me!" Miroku gasped.

"Oops, sorry," Kagome gave an innocent smile.

_If you have younger sibling, the poke behind the ear really works, believe me I've had it used on me many times before. The reaction for me is very similar to Inuyasha's, so use it if you like! It's also fun to do it to friends (grins evilly) I hope you liked it! REVIEW!_

_killnarakusetmefree _


	8. Chapter 8

XII

_Okay people, I know it's been a long time since I last updated, I'm sorry, and I really wish I didn't have so much freaking school work… Even if you've already read chapter eight re-read it, I've changed some stuff, and added a bit._

Miroku led her to the maze, but his help other than that was pointless. Kimi walked out of it and gave them a simple greeting.

"Thanks for the help Miroku." Kagome smiled at him.

"No problem. Come find us when you're done. Uh, with whatever you need her for." Miroku hoped the last pat of the sentence would make a good enough cover up for his major slip-up.

After she made sure he had left Kagome turned to Kimi. "I want to know more about the curse, precisely how the ritual or whatever it is that seals Naraku how it's carried out, anything that might help."

"Help with what?" Kimi began to stroll towards the house.

"Well, I want to find another way. I know you're probably going to say 'don't try, it's impossible.' Well, you don't have to; there's a reason we have free will, if we had a single trail without any forks in the road, we would be going along with what other people want from us. I refuse to be controlled. So if you don't help me I can go to Inuyasha, if I explain to him everything he will tell me all he knows. So you have the choice of helping me without Inuyasha finding out, or he could find out everything and I still learn what I need." Kimi was impressed with the girl's bargaining skills.

"You didn't have to go and say all that; I was hoping you would decide this." Kagome stared at her confused. "And I am impressed with that little speech. By the way, you can't fool me; I can tell that you have told all three of them."

"Heh-heh, you're not mad are you?"

"You're still here aren't you? Besides, I wanted you to tell them. I wanted them to understand what was going on and would happen. I knew if I had you all know, one of you would think to try something else, and with all of you helping we would most likely come up with an easier way."

"Kimi, why didn't you just flat out tell us?"

"Well, if I had told you, even with the part about you and Inuyasha, you would think you were but you wouldn't have your whole heart in it. Though, if you came up with the idea on your own and had others supporting you then you would have more determination and so on."

"You really like playing mind games don't you."

"No, Psychology was my major in college. So I know all about it, therefore mind games are boring to me. Well, unless they're on Sesshomaru and he actually falls for it; he is the only person who can withstand most of my tests." She grinned at Kagome, who just stared at her.

"_And I thought Inuyasha had been over-dramatic about her being crazy!" _ "So, I take it now that the 'secret' is out, you want to talk with them as well?"

"Yes. I will be in the Library."

Kagome headed back to the Music room to find the others gone. Next stop, Sango and Miroku's room, nobody. On to Inuyasha's. Bingo, they were in there.

"It would have been nice if you guys had told me you were heading to another room!" she shouted as she walked in.

"You don't have to scream!" Inuyasha threw his hands over his ears.

"Sorry." She shrugged, not really caring.

"You weren't with her very long, what did you find out?"

"That we were busted from the start, and that your aunt plays mind games."

"Huh?" all three answered at the same time.

"Long story short, she knew I would tell you guys everything and wanted you to know about it, therefore she told and waited for one of us to come up with the idea to rebel. Easy enough to understand, right? Kay, let's go, she's waiting for all of us in the library." Kagome said the entire thing in a single breath and gasped for air.

"Uh, sure, whatever." Sango said as they headed to the library.

Sesshomaru was in one of the corners with a book, and Kimi was attempting to get him to put it away.

"As I told you before, there is no point in searching for another way, so I will not participate and end up wasting my time." He glanced up at the four trespassers then back to the book.

"Sesshomaru, if we even learn a little then it is not pointless, others will follow if we fail, and they will learn more as well, it will not waste your time. Plus, you have the rest of your pointless life for stuff worth your time, now help your brother!" She glared at him, still oblivious to the four who had just walked in. "Your father would have wanted you to help him."

"Dammit, don't bring my father into this like you know him." Sesshomaru growled.

"Well, I know him a hell of a lot better than you. You were still a shrimp when he died, so shut up and help us." She growled just as menacingly.

He sat there staring at her a few minutes then put the book down, and shoved past her. He walked over to a book shelf and removed one of the edges.

"This is where anything would be that could help."

On the corner was a black pad that lit up to a neon blue when he pushed a button on one side. He pressed his finger against it; the wall next to the bookcase slowly folded itself down, like a divider wall only vertical. Behind it was a chain curtain that was drawn to the side and was attached at the top and bottom.

"What is that room?" Kimi walked over to the door and walked in through a silk curtain. "Why the hell didn't I know about this room?" she shouted a minute later, somewhere far away from the doorway.

"Father had it added to the blueprints at last minute. Guess you didn't know as much about him as you thought you did." Sesshomaru remarked smartly.

She popped her head through the curtain. "Shut up. Now, tell me, what is this room?"

"When the house was first made it served not only as a house, but as a museum too. There were certain things he didn't want shown off, either because of the value of it, or something the world shouldn't see." Sesshomaru said and walked over to his book, picked it up and headed to the door. "Spend as much time in there as you want. I don't care." The library door closed with a loud thud behind him.

"That was, um, interesting," Kagome stuttered. "So, you said you would tell us more?" they walked over to the newly found room and walked in after Kimi.

"Oh, yes, I almost forgot about that." She ran a hand through her two inch long brown and graying hair. "Well, the two are alone in a room, with a circle drawn of ground spices, sugar water, salt water, and vinegar. Two pentagrams are drawn of the same, facing opposite directions, so as to look like a ten pointed star. They sit in the middle, back to back." She paused to take a break, and to try to remember the rest.

"Then they chant something, and when Naraku shows up one leaves the circle and it's over." Inuyasha finished. All but Kimi looked at him quizzically.

"How did you know that?" Kagome asked.

"I'd rather not talk about it."

"So, now that you know how it's done, what other questions do you have?"

Kagome finally asked what was obviously on everybody else's mind, "How long do we have?"

"It's whenever is best. In this case we need to wait as long as possible so we can find out as much as possible. But he will show himself sooner or later. That could take days, weeks, maybe even months."

"Okay, so we should get to work as soon as possible!" Sango said as if it were a simple task and walked past Kimi into the room.

Inuyasha shook his head and followed her, allowing a small chuckle to exit his mouth. Kagome also; her head slightly dropping forward.

"Aunt Kimi, is there any real chance that we might be able to find a way?" Miroku asked softly.

"Who knows? We might, and we might be too late. The only thing that is sure is that we can try. Try what you can, even when you fail, keep trying. Live by that; so many things could happen." She walked into the room followed by Miroku.

The room was huge, it had a low ceiling, but it stretched back a few yards, then the sagging, tunnel passageway seemed out of place among the assorted things in the room. Sheathed swords hung on the walls, some on stands; the swords that didn't have sheathes sat on tables on dusty cushions and perches. Each of the sheaths or handles equipped with a jewel or two that twinkled despite the dust that had gathered on it. Kimonos and other things, which had obviously been woven of something not known to man, were either draped as a wall hanging or hung on a wooden rack. Other assorted weapons, that seemed to be out of the craziest and unbelievable fairytales, each had a stand of its own, some even accompanied by a sketch of the original wielder. The room, which was probably big enough to house a ballroom party, was almost as stuffed as a small car on moving day.

"Whoa." Miroku mouthed as a small gasp echoed in everyone's throats.

"So," Kagome said after a long pause. "Where should we start?" she gave a hopeless chuckle that morphed into a groan. _"This is going to be impossible."_

They began their search for anything helpful. As Sango, Miroku, Kimi, and Inuyasha started to clean off a few of the name plaques Kagome ventured down through the tunnel. The floor was made of large, pathetically placed stones, making it uneven and unstable. The walls had Bamboo stalks holding them up and the ceiling was a single large stone. Even someone who wasn't Closter phobic would feel the walls closing in while walking with their head bent so as to not whack it on the occasional jut of rock above them. Near the center a swinging door gave way to a small room packed with books of all sizes. A hanging on the wall behind the door caught her attention. _Even the weakest can win, and the smartest be outsmarted. Life gives a test of faith; don't be the one to fail. _Even if it was a little cheesy, it still caught Kagome off guard. She couldn't help but feel that it was cheering them on… Talk about cheesy.

At the end of the tunnel a bolted door stood. It was made of bamboo just like the walls, but had been painted a blood red color. She jiggled it and knew Inuyasha could open it. She turned around to head back.

And ran into a wall.

Or rather, a door; the same one she had just found, but it was reversed. Now, the handle which had been on the right, was now on the left.

"_Aw crap, where am I?"_ she turned around and saw a wall and a path that lead to the right. She realized that the door normally would have opened to a hallway that leads to another room. How many could have been hidden on the third floor, along with all the long hallways with the 'natural' stone ceilings?

The third and final room only had seven things in it. A red males kimono shirt, a bow and quiver full of arrows with black feathers, and two swords. One seemed in fairly good condition, the other almost in tatters. Not seeing anything interesting anywhere else in the room she headed back to the door. The door swung open as if the locks she had seen before on the other side hadn't existed.

And she walked into the library, from the main door. Not into the tunnel.

"Okay. That was weird." She scowled in confusion and was shook out of it when she heard Inuyasha's voice.

"Hey Kagome, how'd you get out there?" he was standing with the curtain half parted and his head tilted to the side.

"Uh, I'm not entirely sure." She said still confused and walked over to him.

"Your scent vanished a few minutes ago and then just popped up in there." He let the curtain drop after her.

"Something's messed up with the door at the end of the tunnel." She walked back to the opening leading into the tunnel.

"What do you mean?"

"I jiggled it because it was locked, trying to see if it was weak enough for you to break, and then when I turned around I ran into it, only on the opposite side. It was like I had somehow been transported to the other side. After exploring the room at the end of the hall I went back to the door and opened it easily and walked out, into the library." She walked back down the hall to the door again, Inuyasha behind her, but didn't touch it. "And you said something about my scent vanishing. Something is seriously strange with this door."

"Yeah." He turned around and cupped his hands to his mouth. "Hey Miroku! Come here!" a clattering noise was heard above and a fine stream of curses coming from Miroku.

"Geez, you made me tip over a stand of metal staves! Which made Sango knock over a table!" he muttered as he found them.

"I didn't make you do jack squat."

"Anyways, so what did you need me for?"

"What do you make of this door?" Kagome asked and pointed to it with her thumb.

"Well, it's a red bamboo door. With locks." He shrugged. "Nothing special."

"Yeah, I would agree. If I hadn't been somehow transported to the other side then walked into the library instead of this tunnel when I walked through it." Kagome gave him a look that said 'try again'.

"Uh." He gave a nervous chuckle. "Okay. That's not what a normal door is supposed to do."

"Ya think?"

Miroku went to touch it but Kagome grabbed his arm.

"I was taken to the other side when I touched it."

"And your point is? You're still alive so what's wrong if I cross?"

She looked at him a few seconds the let go of his arm with a shrug. He put his hand on it, nothing happened.

"Uh. I jiggled the handle, maybe that's what activates it."

He tried that; still nothing.

Inuyasha pushed past the two, "Let me try." He lifted his leg to kick it down. When his foot made contact with the wood it seemed to be sucked in between the stalks. In a few seconds he was completely sucked through.

"No use- Oof." A light thudding noise came from the door, and Inuyasha's curses were muffled.

"Inuyasha?" Kagome touched the door, unlike the last time she felt a slight tug. Then she looked to her left and saw Inuyasha getting up from the ground. "Oops. I didn't mean to knock you over."

"You didn't, I hit the wall when I saw you coming through and then fell over."

"Oh. I take that back then."

He headed to the last room and looked around. Then went to pick up some of the things.

"Inuyasha, what are you doing?"

"Well, it's obvious that the others can't come in here, so I'm going to take them out there." He had both of the swords in his hands when he reached for the bow. A pink light surrounded it and forced his hand away with a small jolt of electricity. "Heh, a spiritual barrier. Fun, fun. You might be able to pick it up."

Kagome reached for it and again the light shot out, but this time when her hand reached the edge it simmered out, like water on a hot pan.

"Well that was interesting." She grabbed the red robe from the stand

They headed back to the door and walked out, and into the library just as before.

"So, nothing else? No special gut wrenching pain or anything?"

"Would you have preferred there to be?"

"No! It's just; you would think that there would be something like that."

"Come on," Kagome sighed and walked back into the hidden room. "Hey, we found this in a hidden room."

"Wait, how did you get out there? You never even walked by." Sango glared at them confused.

"Some weird enchanted door thingy that wouldn't let Miroku enter but let me and Inuyasha." Kagome said and sat the stuff down. "And now I'm going to see if there were any books on any of this stuff."

Right as Kagome walked into the tunnel she ran into Miroku.

"The door opened but nobody was on the other side. Then I heard you guys up here. It was like it's a portal or something." he said and helped Kagome up.

"Really? I would never have thought!" Kagome said sarcastically and walked past him.

After choosing two books she walked back out into the first room, dropped them into Inuyasha arms and walked out into the actual library. The others followed. She began going down the lines of books.

"You know, we have a computer system with them all listed. You just enter the keywords or subject and it comes up with a list. It would be much faster." Kimi said and guided her over to a computer in the corner.

"Oh."

Kagome typed in keywords of the four things that had been brought from the secret room. Then looked at the tiny list and found each one listed.

"So let's get started." Inuyasha said and looked over to Kagome.

She already had one of the books open and was skimming the lines. "Yeah, sure, let's get to work." She said in a distant voice, not even registering what she was saying. The rest soon settled in with a book and began reading.

_Okay, so as you can tell ive revised this one a bit, taken out the other two things that were originally in the secret room. _


End file.
